Inge de Bruijn biography
Inge de Bruijn, (born August 24, 1973, Barendrecht, Netherlands), Dutch swimmer whose eight Olympic medals (2000, 2004) and 5 world championships made her one of the crucial profitable rivals in girls’s swimming historical past.
De Bruijn started swimming at age 7 and took part in her first worldwide meet at age 12. She joined swimming’s elite when she took 4 medals on the 1991 European championships in Athens. Food poisoning nearly compelled her to overlook the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, however she competed and completed eighth within the 50-metre freestyle and ninth within the 100-metre butterfly. As the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta approached, nonetheless, de Bruijn’s enthusiasm for swimming was waning. Even after making the nationwide workforce, she skipped practices or confirmed up late. Jacco Verhaeren, her coach and boyfriend, requested her to depart the workforce.
In 1997 de Bruijn started coaching below famous swimming coach Paul Bergen. The exercises he tailor-made for her concerned weight coaching and different power workouts in addition to swimming. The routine didn't yield rapid outcomes, however on the 1999 European championships de Bruijn started exhibiting new indicators of life, taking two gold medals and setting a European file within the 100-metre butterfly. Then, within the spring and summer season main as much as the 2000 Games in Sydney, she went on a livid profitable streak. By the time the Games started, de Bruijn held world information within the 50- and 100-metre freestyle and the 50- and 100-metre butterfly occasions. As had been the case with different “older” girls swimmers, de Bruijn’s shocking success on the comparatively superior age of 26 introduced with it suspicions of using performance-enhancing medication. De Bruijn, who had by no means failed a drug check, denied allegations of drug use and attributed her success to teaching, coaching, and using new swimwear that had proved to enhance her occasions in addition to these of different swimmers.
In Sydney she gained gold medals within the 100-metre butterfly, the 100-metre freestyle, and the 50-metre freestyle and set new world information in every of those occasions. She additionally earned a silver medal as a part of the Dutch 4 × 100-metre freestyle relay workforce. She continued her domination of dash occasions on the 2001 and 2003 world championships, capturing 5 titles. De Bruijn turned in a equally spectacular efficiency on the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, amassing a gold medal (within the 50-metre freestyle), a silver (within the 100-metre freestyle), and a pair of bronzes (within the 4 × 100-metre freestyle relay and the 100-metre butterfly). She retired from aggressive swimming in 2007.